Glossary

crisis

A situation that is perceived to be out of equilibrium or on the verge of being out of control such that, without appropriate intervention, a disaster or system collapse will take place.

first-order sense-making

A term used to designate the ‘non-specialist’ sense-making of ordinary people. (See also: second-order sense-making.)

framing

A concept widely used in the social sciences and humanities to indicate how a phenomenon can be made to ‘show up’ quite differently depending upon how it is contextualised or presented.

method

A method is any technical support for sense-making which enhances it by making it more methodical. Methods can enhance both empirical observation (e.g. using a brain scanner to observe brain activity) or theory (e.g. using inferential statistics to aid inductive reasoning and explanatory inference). Methodology is a theoretical reflection on method.

paradigm

A concept from philosopher and historian of science Thomas Kuhn, who argued that a science is born when it achieves the status of a ‘paradigm’. Paradigms have two aspects, exemplary scientific discoveries (‘exemplars’) around which crystallise a ‘disciplinary matrix’ (including institutional arrangements like professorial chairs, journals, textbooks, conferences, etc.). In the course of its development, a given science might also go through a ‘paradigm shift’ (as when Newtonian physics was transformed by Einsteinian physics).

second-order sense-making

Sense-making about sense-making (as undertaken in the discipline of social psychology, among other disciplines). (See also: first-order sense-making; sense-making.)

sense-making

The set of processes (emotional, perceptual, cognitive and discursive) through which our encounters with others, things and self gain, lose and regain meaning as we live our lives. The word ‘sense’ stems from the old Indo-European root ‘sent’, meaning to strive, go, perceive or have direction, suggesting mentality in general. This meaning continues in the Latin sentire (to feel). The fact that we find this root in ‘sensation’ and ‘sentence’ shows that it spans both sensory perception and the semantic ‘meaning’ of discursive language (crudely, both seeing and saying, hearing and listening). The word ‘making’ indicates the active and constructive basis of our sense of reality. Our sense of reality is not just given but made, and that making is always enacted or tied to what we do. (See also: first-order sense-making; second-order sense-making.)

social

The meaning of ‘the social’ is complex because it includes everything from the dyad of a parent/infant interaction, or a group of football supporters to a nation-state within world society. All are social settings shaping experience and conduct, and so all are relevant to social psychology. The word ‘social’ has two obvious and related meanings. First, it means time spent with others. We say we socialise when we meet others, and ‘being social’ in this sense is a kind of activity undertaken with others. Second, it relates to society and its various organisations (social services, social security, social justice, etc.). Here, the social is a kind of environment, or system, framing our activity: that is, the concrete situation under which we live. The two meanings are related and ultimately inseparable. This is because society as the system under which we live is designed to mould our relations with others and our manner of living. The way we ‘socialise’ and spend time together is shaped by ‘society’ in the sense of organised structures like ‘the family’, ‘school’, ‘the workplace’, ‘leisure facilities’, ‘municipalities’, ‘governments’, ‘states’, and so on. The whole point of these organisations is to lend clear shape and purpose to our relationships. Hence, in the family we might relate as daughter to mother, whilst in the school we relate as pupil to teacher. Society, in this sense, lends order to the activities of its members, but at the same time, its order arises because of the activities of those members.

symbolism

In this course, the term ‘symbol’ is used in a broad and common-sense way to refer to a fundamental feature of mentality and sociality: that one component (or set of components) of experience can function as a ‘symbol’ with a ‘meaning’ that has reference to another component (or set of components) of experience. This definition is influenced by the philosopher A.N. Whitehead. If seeing smoke means ‘fire’ for a given person at a given time, then in that instance, smoke is the symbol and fire is the meaning. Any aspect of experience can serve as a symbol or as meaning. So, for someone who, at a given moment, sees a fire and thinks of climate change, then ‘fire’ is the symbol and ‘climate change’ is the meaning. Humans have invented a set of tools called ‘language’ which includes words (like ‘fire’, ‘smoke’, ‘climate change’). Words are specially designed to serve as symbols in language, but words can also be meanings. In most languages today, the words used are quite arbitrary spoken sounds or written squiggles that have acquired meaning through convention. The word ‘symbol’ is arbitrary in this sense, and different theoretical traditions use different words (like ‘signifier’). This, as usual, can lead to confused sense-making. That is why we draw your attention to how we have defined the word symbol. What a structural linguist would call a ‘signifier’ and its ‘signified’, we are calling a ‘symbol’ and its ‘meaning’, because we find it a simpler way of expressing this quite profound issue.

theory

Systematic speculation grounded in logical, rational and intuitive sense-making. Theories can be pitched at different levels, from a theory of why George Floyd was murdered, to a theory of how any type of cause is attributed to any kind of event, to a ‘grand theory of everything’.